Lisa Kaus's Class

What saying "Lisa Kaus's Class" is a tongue twister, but well worth it what a great teacher. I took a class from her in July at her home studio...that happens to be in the town next to me. My friend Denise had enrolled in the class first and I enrolled on a whim but I am so glad I did. This is the first time I have been taught how to use acrylic paints to get deep rich applications of paint. You can really see it in the house creations.




The first day we worked on birthday cake boxes. The base is wooden boxed glued together. The top box opens to hide treasures.

The base color was a Tiffany inspired blue that I embellished with a lime like green color and white stamp impressions. I stamped Peaceful on it since that is what the finished piece (peace....hahaha) made me feel. The top of the cake is embellish with a vintage deer I had bought at a recent estate sale. The deer is on a daisy Lisa helped me develop because I was stuck on how to give the top deer more presences. Diamond dust was glued on to imply snow. Some old twine was wrapped around tacking nails for the lid and then cooper tape was wrapped around the base of the top box.

The bottom of the cake was painted the same way as the top piece but instead of works I did large dots of vintage text. I distressed some carnival tickets to wrap around the bottom with accents of my newest favorite thing, plastic beads. (As a side note, my mom had olive green ones hanging in one of our bathrooms in the 70s.) I then used tacks to attache the frilly fringe. I love to juxtapose the frilly with the hard coldness of the the hardware tacks.

Lisa really encouraged us to incorporate all the sides in our pieces. I think I did a nice job including them without over powering the front or back.

The second day we did whimsical house. Houses really resonate with me and so I really love doing this piece. You can really see the deep color I achieved with Lisa's Painting techniques.

This drawer pull was something I found in a free box a few weeks before the class. When I picked it up I was not sure how I would use it so I dropped it in my purse and forgot about it. In class, some of the example used old door nobs on them. I instantly remembered the pull and decided to build the piece around it instead of the bird I originally had as inspiration.

The roof is a collection of vintage text laid out in a hodgepodge fashion then a light glaze of miceous oxide was brushed over it. I think the slight tint of black makes the roof seem like it is was back in London in the 19th century with the coal dust covering everything.

I was really stuck on what to put in the middle between the door and window. I had the gold numbers and since #58 is the condo number of where I live it was perfect. But just placing the numbers on the house seemed dull. Lisa suggested using some cooper. At first I did not really like it but I was willing to trust her. Once the beeswax was applied it developed the perfect patina for the piece.

I have a ton of keys and I love to hang them off pieces of works. To me it gives it a lot of movement.

On the side you can see I placed tacks and on this side I nailed wooden stars I distressed.

Lisa was a great instructor and it was so much fun to be at her home studio. I plan to take some more classes from her.

The house hangs on my patio and the cake box is at work impressing me all the time at how much I like it.